Apple face an inquiry in the United Kingdom after advertising 4G support from their latest iPad tablet. The Advertising Standards Authority have widened their search according to the BBC.
It appears that the regulator are not happy with Apples advertising for the iPad and their subsequent claims to comply with amending the iPad's latest 4G suppoyrt.
The UK has not yet gained widespread 4G coverage however even when it does, the iPad 3 will be incompatible. The regulator said they have received a barrage of complaints from unhappy customers and Apple have yet to comment on the problem.
The regulator have resolved some of the concerns by forcing Apple to change their advertising messages, but they are now looking into other concerns which have been raised by consumers.
Apple are still advertising the iPad 3 on their UK store with a ‘Wifi & 4G' version. They have added a footnote saying that ‘4G LTE' is only supported by some networks in Canada and America.
When the UK finally get 4G networks, they will be incompatible due to the frequencies. 4G networks in the UK and Europe will be different to those used in America and Canada and the iPad 3 can't support them on a hardware level.
Apple are also facing problems in Australia with regulators. The Competition and Consumer Commission has accused the firm of misleading consumers with similar 4G claims.
Kitguru says: In their defense Apple have offered to refund any iPad buyers who are unhappy with the 4G problems.
seems like much ado about nothing really. unless people magically thought 4G would appear in the UK for the tablet. its not even out yet. sure, it wont work, but how long will it take the UK to adopt this anyway? another year? the new ipad 4 will be out by then. big deal.